Separation of butane isomers using a novel ZIF-8 slurry with extremely high efficiency: from laboratory study to industrial pilot test

Separation of butane isomers using a novel ZIF-8 slurry with extremely high efficiency: from laboratory study to industrial pilot test | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Separation of butane isomers using a novel ZIF-8 slurry with extremely high efficiency: from laboratory study to industrial pilot test Mingke Yang, Huishan Wang, Julian Y. Zuo, Yu Han, Liya Chai, Kun Li, and 7 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-941895/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 15 Aug, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Both n-butane and iso-butane are important petrochemical raw materials, and their separation is of great significance and full of challenge because of their close boiling characteristic. The ZIF-8 slurry formed with a novel mixed solvent M-water solution as sorption media was adopted to separate the mixture with high efficiency. The iso-/n-butane selectivity of ZIF-8/M-water slurries is as high as 890 with high kinetic performance, even transcending the upper limit of the new materials or membranes. More encouragingly, continuous pilot separation device was established and test results show that the purity and recovery ratio of iso-butane product achieved 99.46 mol% and 87% respectively, which are remarkably superior to the corresponding performance (98.56 mol% and 54%) of the industrial distillation tower. To our best knowledge, this is the first industrial pilot test using MOFs for gas separation, and also an important step forward to the commercial application of MOFs in gas separation. Chemical Engineering Butane isomers Separation Efficiency ZIF-8 slurry Pilot test Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation.docx Supplementary infromation Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 15 Aug, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-941895","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":56276761,"identity":"bdc5965c-c79d-4084-a8ec-917deb5eb2cb","order_by":0,"name":"Mingke Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mingke","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""},{"id":56276762,"identity":"3f191896-bb5c-474d-8ff7-49d85da97d93","order_by":1,"name":"Huishan Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Huishan","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":56276763,"identity":"bb589dca-78dd-4977-963e-862eacf51f7d","order_by":2,"name":"Julian Y. Zuo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"FMG Inc.","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Julian","middleName":"Y.","lastName":"Zuo","suffix":""},{"id":56276764,"identity":"b15d337c-f7de-4e50-9ea4-43bf0c48e651","order_by":3,"name":"Yu Han","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yu","middleName":"","lastName":"Han","suffix":""},{"id":56276765,"identity":"1efa0d02-ae18-43b0-b79c-fc5f833c5404","order_by":4,"name":"Liya Chai","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Liya","middleName":"","lastName":"Chai","suffix":""},{"id":56276766,"identity":"540030f2-1122-4b3d-a71c-c1c1b18c3c55","order_by":5,"name":"Kun Li","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kun","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":56276767,"identity":"a7bfdff4-1e24-4383-a186-4526700d41a2","order_by":6,"name":"Wan Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wan","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""},{"id":56276768,"identity":"ecde3bb3-580c-45fd-814d-cf08772d9ed9","order_by":7,"name":"Xiaowan Peng","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiaowan","middleName":"","lastName":"Peng","suffix":""},{"id":56276769,"identity":"765e4564-2d41-431a-95e4-93dbab620f07","order_by":8,"name":"Baocan Dong","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Baocan","middleName":"","lastName":"Dong","suffix":""},{"id":56276770,"identity":"d37db5b6-9a8d-4ec5-ae46-4ed769c0a6e0","order_by":9,"name":"Chun Deng","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chun","middleName":"","lastName":"Deng","suffix":""},{"id":56276771,"identity":"51e7c603-260d-4866-83a2-1dcadfeea5db","order_by":10,"name":"Chang-Yu Sun","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chang-Yu","middleName":"","lastName":"Sun","suffix":""},{"id":56276772,"identity":"9763ae4c-9e77-47d0-a640-a95612750425","order_by":11,"name":"Bei Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bei","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":56276773,"identity":"c3ef33cf-01e3-4325-a5d3-f72f66392652","order_by":12,"name":"Guang-Jin Chen","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAwUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFCCA2xAwgbC5iFBSxpJWhhAWg6ToEXe8fCzBx93nJc3uN3A+OBtG4O8OSEthgeOmRvOPHPbcMOdA8yGc9sYDHc2ENLScIZNmrftdoLBjQQQgyHB4AAxWv62nQNpYf9NlBZ5BqAWxrYDYFuYidJiwHDMTLK3Ldlw5p2DzZJzzkkYbiBoy4zDzyR+ttnJ891uPvjhTZmNPGFbbsBUSDA2gEgC6kG29DfAtBBWPApGwSgYBSMUAAAKUUKnGTvJIAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum, Beijing","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guang-Jin","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2021-09-27 08:15:49","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-941895/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-941895/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32418-6","type":"published","date":"2022-08-15T04:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":25244376,"identity":"306efd96-04a3-48b5-9dcd-0996adda0bba","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-08-16 07:12:00","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1410155,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manu.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-941895/v1_covered.pdf"},{"id":14463876,"identity":"1b5b16f6-2be6-4c8b-b3db-b5d680a749e0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-10-12 18:31:18","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1404931,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manu.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-941895/v1_covered.pdf"},{"id":14463874,"identity":"f7dcb8e2-0601-4faf-b000-1cfdf008dc29","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-10-12 18:31:11","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":4790862,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary infromation","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryInformation.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-941895/v1/67d919c026075dad2621dc20.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Separation of butane isomers using a novel ZIF-8 slurry with extremely high efficiency: from laboratory study to industrial pilot test","fulltext":[{"header":"Full Text","content":"This preprint is available for \u003ca href='/article/rs-941895/latest.pdf' target='_blank'\u003edownload as a PDF\u003c/a\u003e."}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Butane isomers, Separation, Efficiency, ZIF-8 slurry, Pilot test","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-941895/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-941895/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eBoth n-butane and iso-butane are important petrochemical raw materials, and their separation is of great significance and full of challenge because of their close boiling characteristic. The ZIF-8 slurry formed with a novel mixed solvent M-water solution as sorption media was adopted to separate the mixture with high efficiency. The iso-/n-butane selectivity of ZIF-8/M-water slurries is as high as 890 with high kinetic performance, even transcending the upper limit of the new materials or membranes. More encouragingly, continuous pilot separation device was established and test results show that the purity and recovery ratio of iso-butane product achieved 99.46 mol% and 87% respectively, which are remarkably superior to the corresponding performance (98.56 mol% and 54%) of the industrial distillation tower. To our best knowledge, this is the first industrial pilot test using MOFs for gas separation, and also an important step forward to the commercial application of MOFs in gas separation.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Separation of butane isomers using a novel ZIF-8 slurry with extremely high efficiency: from laboratory study to industrial pilot test","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2021-10-12 18:31:09","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-941895/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"e573aa3d-777e-4b14-b4a3-89f70285c887","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 12th, 2021","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":7810357,"name":"Chemical Engineering"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2022-08-16T07:11:53+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-941895","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32418-6","journal":{"identity":"nature-communications","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Nature Communications"},"publishedOn":"2022-08-15 04:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"August 15th, 2022"},"versionCreatedAt":"2021-10-12 18:31:09","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s41467-022-32418-6","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32418-6","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-941895","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-941895","identity":"rs-941895","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"7rjqhiLT3MXkJMwkYKINL","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}